SC says 3 pc disabled quota not applicable to pvt unaided schools

April 3, 2010: The Indian Express

A three-judge Special Bench of the Supreme Court has held that 3 per cent reservation quota for disabled children is only available in government and government-aided institutions and not in “private unaided¶ schools. The judgment was delivered on March 31.

In the course of the same judgment, the Bench, comprising Justices R V Raveendran, R M Lodha and C K Prasad, also ruled that private employers are under no liability to maintain an employee who “acquires¶ a disability “during the course of service¶.

“It is submitted that an obligation is cast on all educational institutions to reserve not less than three per cent of the seats for persons with disabilities. In fact, it is not so,¶ the Bench said.

The court said though a marginal note in the relevant Act uses the words “all educational institutions¶ with reference to reservation of seats with disabilities, specific sections in the statute “makes it clear that only government institutions and educational institutions receiving aid from the government shall reserve not less than 3 per cent seats for persons with disabilities¶.

The court reasoned that private unaided schools did not come under the definition of ‘State’ in regard to its acts and functions as an “instrumentality of the State¶.

“Therefore, care is taken to apply the provisions of the Act (Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995) to only educational institutions belonging to the government or receiving aid from the government and not to unaided private educational institutions,¶ the court held.

The court observed that Section 47 of the Disabilities Act, which bars “an establishment to not dispense with, or reduce in rank, an employee who acquires a disability during his service¶, only applies to government institutions and not the private sector.

“Private employers, whether individuals, partnerships, proprietary concerns or companies (other than government companies) are clearly excluded from the ‘establishments’ to which Section 47 of the Act will apply,¶ the court said.

This, the Supreme Court held, was the intention of the legislature.

The court was passing verdict on an appeal filed by Dalco Engineering Private Ltd challenging a Bombay High Court decision which ordered it to reinstate an employee, Satish Prabhakar Padhye, who suffered 85 per cent hearing impairment while in service 10 years ago. The Supreme Court upheld Dalco’s decision to terminate Padhye.

The Bench said its decision “will not come in the way of an employee of any private company, who has been terminated on the ground of disability, seeking or enforcing any right available under any other statute¶.